2016 AFC U-19 Championship qualification

The 2016 AFC U-19 Championship qualification decided the participating teams of the 2016 AFC U-19 Championship. The tournament is the 39th edition of the AFC U-19 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia.

A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Bahrain who qualified automatically as hosts but also competed in the qualifying stage.^[1]

Same as previous editions, the tournament acts as the AFC qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top four teams of the final tournament will qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea as the AFC representatives, besides South Korea who qualified automatically as hosts. If South Korea are among the top four teams, the fifth-placed team (i.e., the losing quarter-finalist with the best record in the tournament) will also qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 5 June 2015 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.^[2] A total of 43 teams entered the qualifying stage and were drawn into ten groups.

• West Zone, with 25 entrants from Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia, had one group of five teams and five groups of four teams.
• East Zone, with 18 entrants from ASEAN and East Asia, had two groups of five teams and two groups of four teams.

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous season in 2014.

Note:

¹ Non-FIFA member, ineligible for U-20 World Cup.

Players born on or after 1 January 1997 are eligible to compete in the tournament.^[4]

In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue. The ten group winners and the five best runners-up from all groups qualify for the final tournament. If Bahrain are one of the group winners or best runners-up, the sixth-best runner-up also qualifies for the final tournament.^[1]

The matches are played between 28 September – 6 October 2015 for Groups G and H (five-team groups); 2–6 October 2015 for all other groups (four-team groups).^[5]

The ranking among the runner-up team of all groups are determined as follows:^[4]

1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches;
2. Greater goal difference resulting from the group matches;
3. Greater number of goals scored in group matches;
4. Greater number of wins in the group matches;
5. Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
6. Drawing of lots.

In order to ensure equality when comparing the runner-up team of all groups, the results of the matches against the fifth-placed team in the groups having five teams are ignored due to the other groups having only four teams.

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.

³ As South Vietnam

²Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: the-afc.com

• AFC U-19 Championship, the-AFC.com